Calling the Native Youth Movement and American Indian Movement! The National Post reports that The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a think tank, predicts a possibly grim future for the Canadian Nation State due to unrest among Natives. The reason is a recipe of factors that are trigger points for unrest and insurrection: a high percentage of disadvantaged youths coupled with vulnerable infrastructure. We’ve seen this same recipe recently in the Arab Spring uprising as explained by William Lind in his article The Gangs of Aleppo. All of this points to the possibility of 4th Generation Warfare coming to the North American continent.

From the National Post:

A more pessimistic report, by Douglas Bland, suggests that Canada has all the necessary “feasibility” conditions for a violent native uprising — social fault lines; a large “warrior cohort”; an economy vulnerable to sabotage; a reluctance on the part of governments and security forces to confront…

A Native American tribe is doing exactly the opposite of what you’d think they’d do: they’re kicking people out of the tribe, huge numbers of them, including people whose ancestors without question were part of the tribe.

Above is an interesting piece on This American Life about tribes that are purging their membership rolls. It would seem that the chief motivation is to increase the share of the pie for those who remain in the tribe. At stake are casino profits and various social services and cash assistance. Of course divisions happened in the past. The danger here is that federal enrollment is what defines a tribe these days. In other words, a bureaucratic entity has taken over defining who is and who is not Native.

My clan was founded through a division; but of course this was hundreds of years…

On Sunday I was in Eugene, Oregon for the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference where I participated on a panel with Cascadian Bioregionalists which included the makers of Occupied Cascadia and a representative from the Portland State University Cascadia Branch. Unfortunately, Xhopakelxhit from Coast Salish territory in British Columbia was unable to make it; she was supposed to be on our panel, too.

What we discussed on our panel was the future of this region; a region which has been called, at times, Raven’s Bioregion and sometimes Cascadia. I advocate for the resurgence of traditional tribal nations based on our model of old: decentralized networks of autonomous clans, villages and tribes in alliance with one another; each with it’s own territory and natural resources which it cares for. This is a land based, cultural approach unique to indigenous cultures all over the world. This is a vision that is in…

Namgis hereditary chief Beau Dick has broken a copper shield to shame the Canadian government and draw attention to environmental issues in the region that threaten Native people. Among my tribe, the Tlingit, we call such copper shields Tináa and all along the Pacific Northwest they are a symbol of wealth and status. To break or cut Tináa is a display of power. It can be used to shame a rival clan or, in this case, the Canadian government. The deliberate destruction of wealth in the name of an enemy or rival showed power, and was seen as a direct challenge to the offender.

In Raven’s bioregion, as I like to call it, there are many ways for a clan or tribe to shame or taunt another people. The raising of a shame totem pool was a common practice. To this day some clans among the Tlingit claim ownership…

Letter of Support for Roger Alexander, Haida Hunter, Fisher, Gatherer, and Furrier.

“I’m not saying that any of this is your fault, or even any of your grandparents did any of it. I’m saying it happened, and it happened on your people’s watch. You’re the one who benefited from it. It doesn’t matter that you’re way down stream from the actual events. You’re still drinking the water.” Dan, Lakota Elder

This writing is to provide the court room and judge a chance to reconsider finding Sherman Roger Alexander guilty of anything but being Haida. This writing is to tell of the native individuals experience against a US government. This letter is to initiate a shift in the power structure of Alaska and surrounding landmasses from an unjust way of life, to return instead, to a life in harmony…

On This Day: In 1870 the Marias Massacre (also known as the Baker Massacre) occurred. It is a little-known massacre of Piegan Blackfeet Indians by the United States Army which took place in Montana. The Marias Massacre occurred in the context of massive white American westward expansion. The Army received a scouting report that a group of Piegans, led by Mountain Chief, was camped along the Marias River. They attacked the site at Willow Rounds, but Mountain Chief had been warned and left the area, so the Army instead ended up attacking the camp of Chief Heavy Runner, who had enjoyed friendly relations with the white men. Although the Army scouts had reportedly warned that they were about to attack the wrong camp, they proceeded anyway. As the men of the camp were mostly out hunting, the raid was a massacre of mostly women and children. A hasty…